On the 12th June this year, user activists, human rights campaigners and those concerned with civil rights launched a worldwide 'Day of Action', holding protests and vigils outside Thai embassies in cities across the globe; from Cardiff, London, New York, Washington and Nepal, from Moscow to Melbourne and Bangkok. The UK's drugs agency, Lifeline, in unison with UKRHA (the UK Harm Reduction Alliance) generously sponsored two members from the TDN (Thai Drug Users Network) to attend the demonstration in London and speak to the UK drugs community about the terror that has been instilled in drug users across Thailand and the blood being spilt in another, tragically misguided war on drugs and drug users. Black Poppy spoke to Wee and Nong from the TDN about the realities of being a drug user living in Thailand today.

Most readers will already know about Thailand's relationship with heroin and its nefarious position in the Golden triangle; however, the last decade has seen a massive increase in methamphetamine production from both inside Thailand and from its borders. Consumption along with production has surged since the mid 1990's and according to official figures, up to a billion methamphetamine pills are sold annually with 3 million people taking them and at least 300,000 people in a population of 62 million now considered to be drug dependent.

Undoubtedly, Thailand has a significant drugs problem; however, seizures and arrests initiated from the current crackdown have tended to be from the lower end of the distribution chain leaving most of the real powers behind the drug trade free. As in the US and many other countries, the Thai drugs war is also a race war as numerous indigenous minorities in Thailand have found themselves targeted by the often brutal police actions alongside some of Thailand's poorest. Alarmingly, another new initiative intends to strip the entire families of Naturalised Thais of their citizenship if a family member is found to be involved in the drugs trade.

The strategy:
Prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a former police official and rich businessman elected in 2001, has applied corporate management principles to the crackdown on the methamphetamine or 'yaa baa' trade. Thailand's 75 provinces are given targets for arrests and seizures with the police involved rewarded with a bounty per pill found and a percentage of the assets seized. Failure to reach these targets is not an option and officials are faced with dismissal or demotion if they do not meet their regional quotas. As a result, meeting targets has become more important than the rule of law.

Today there are still many professional gunmen in Thailand left over from the Vietnam War, when the government recruited and armed irregular forces and vigilante groups. These gangs are now hired to settle disputes and feuds and are used during elections with canvassers routinely being found dead. Disturbingly, the killings in the current anti-drugs campaign have the same appearance as these professional hits. A lot of victims have been on secret but official 'black lists' and when the government told dealers that they should 'surrender or die', the killings started right on cue. The government has asserted that drug gangs are responsible for the majority of these murders and only 74 were confirmed killed by the police. Pornthip Rojanasunan, acting director of the Forensic Science Institute said the justice system could be jeopardised by a lack of explanation into these extra judicial killings. "It should be made clear whether these killings were made in self defence or not" she said. Although the law requires the presence of at least one doctor at the scene of an unnatural death, few were willing to intervene in such cases, worried how the police would react. "All we can do is report on the location of the bullet and other wounds on the body, we can't say who did what and how the bullet hit the person, as is intended by law'. Though no doctor will say so publicly, police have discouraged them from being open, as the law requires. Forum Asia, a regional human rights group, says it interviewed forensic experts who said they found suspects had drugs planted on them after their death, that some victims were handcuffed when killed or shot in a group and that in 3 cases bullets had been removed before coroners had examined the bodies.

Press reportage Critics of this policy are accused of being in the pay of the drug lords

Despite the Thai government stating that it is not policy to encourage extra judicial killings, Amnesty International called the crackdown 'a de facto shoot-to-kill policy' that pressurizes police officers to produce results or lose their jobs. The Thai Foreign Minister has called the killings a 'side effect' of the current war on drugs while Thaksin himself said that "if they resist, there is nothing we can do, they will have to die prematurely if necessary". Although the recent crackdown was initially planned for three months, Thaksin has been so pleased with the results he has extended the operation until December '03 when he intends to deliver a drug-free Thailand to the king in time for his birthday on the 5th.

With a drug free Thailand in mind, a proposal that has the support of the majority of the Thai people, what does the government have planned for Thai users? If the Thai government expects to rid every inch of Thai soil of drugs and drug users by the end of the year - where are they all going to go? With 25 provinces declaring success in arresting all those appearing on police blacklists, and still other provinces stating their regions were now '100% free of drugs and drug users', what is actually happening to all the Thai users not yet arrested or murdered?

Although the Justice Ministry expects 80,000 of the country's estimated 300,000 dependant users to pass through rehabilitation programmes this year (returning to society under the supervision of probation officers and volunteers), the reality has proven somewhat different.

'Surrendering' for treatment:
Wee, from the TDN told Black Poppy that the police blacklist carries the names of suspected users and dealers, tens of thousands of names from every province in Thailand. The fear instilled in Thai users has meant that over 400,000 users and dealers have 'surrendered' themselves for treatment, even, Wee says, those who have never touched a drug in their lives have ended up on the police blacklist, either through a family member being involved, or simply through error. Getting one's name off the list is paramount for many as the alternative would be facing the wrath of the police. The 'Rehabilitation' programmes provide a means to do this but they are mostly military style boot camps where physical exercise, hard labour and brutal guards constitute the regime. However, completing the boot camp rehab doesn't mean that your name can't be re-listed. Nong, who works in one of the few, more humane rehabs, lives in constant fear of the regime as no-one trusts the government not to place the staff themselves on the list. Working with, or being related to someone who uses drugs, can be enough to ensure your name appears on the police blacklist leaving many professionals reluctant to work with drug users.

Wee told BP that Thailand has never implemented any kind of harm reduction programmes such as needle exchanges and today, with over 50% of Thai drug users now HIV positive, the current policy has meant even more are being pushed underground, afraid to seek treatment and testing and hindering efforts to prevent further HIV infections. Although the price of methamphetamines has increased by more than 60% in some areas of Thailand, the demand for drugs has remained the same. Tragically, this has meant that in some of Thailand's poorest areas, users are switching to cheap solvents and glues, potentially causing more damage to the brain than methamphetamines. Heroin use, which has remained stable for some years, has started to increase.

For Wee and Nong, the stigma associated with drug use is intense. Massive distortion surrounds the drugs issue in Thailand to such an extent that such extra judicial killings are accepted by most Thais as a necessary part of cleansing the country of drugs. Increases in poverty and crime has meant drug users have become the scapegoats, blamed for the decline in society and the deterioration of communities and as people look to their government for answers, ignorance about the drugs issue has allowed the slash and burn approach to flourish. In fact, Thaskin has become so popular, Wee and Nong envisage his government will be in power for at least another decade.

When Black Poppy spoke to Wee and Nong, it became clear that if Thailand is capable of unleashing such an assault on the lives of drug users, in a country that is considered by the world as democratic, and if such a policy is believed successful, a vote winner, then how far away is it from being picked up and used by other countries? Sadly, the Philippines, who face a methamphetamine problem nearly as severe as Thailands, have introduced a similar crackdown and authorities from Afghanistan have already visited Thailand to study its legal system - especially, its drug control laws.

Wee and Nong don't consider the Thai government to be stupid, they believe they need to be shown alternative approaches that work. That the people come to understand the drugs issue is not black and white, that harm reduction policies can and do work and that drug users are people not vermin that need to be cleansed from a country.

You can take action against the Thai policy and register your disapproval with the Thai government at:
http://actioncentre.drugpolicy.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=5010

If you would like to speak to Wee and Nong, or show your support to the people at the Thai Drug Users Network, you can reach them on: tdnthailand@hotmail.com